Tuesday!

One of the best days thus far!  We started off a little later in the morning.  Janice didn't ask us what time we wanted to eat so we just slept in a little.  For breakfast we had kippers...aka smoked haddock with tea and bread with butter.  It was quite the delicacy!  We headed out at about noon for the Tate Museum of Modern Art right along the Thames.  We walked past it the day before and decided that it might be an interesting stop which it certainly was.

I am a surrealist myself.  I love work that takes you by surprise.  It's often shocking but not in an "in your face" sort of way, just in a "here try this" sort of way.  Does that make sense?  Well, I like it anyway.  It's thought provoking and more than an interpretation of what is seen.  Surreal art is like an interpretation of what is not seen but what is imagined.  Some of my favorite pieces are installations.  I really loved  "Three Dancers" by Picasso and "Forgotten Horizon" by Dali.  I also saw one of Calder's moblies which are pretty iconic and fun.  Though, I don't know that I'd put that in the surrealist category but, whatever, I'm not a curator or anything :).   A sculpture that really captured my attention was "Giant three way Plug, Scale 2/3" by Oldenburg who has done some really well known and admired works that grace the lawns of parks across the world.  I remember his work from my civ classes as being really interesting.   He takes every day objects and enlarges them by quite a bit.  You see one of his pieces close up and you think "what is this" and you step back or see it from above and say "oh, it's a giant spoon with a cherry! Cool!"  Of course they had on of the three copies of Rodin's "The Kiss" which has an interesting history.  Rodin must have had an education in history and literature to come up with the subject for "The Kiss".  I really enjoyed that aspect of it.  My favorite part of the museum was the "Energy and Process" exhibit devoted to the Arte Povera movement.  I loved this piece by Niki de Saint Phalle called "Shooting Picture".  She filled balloons with paint and covered them with plaster.  Then she had some artist friends, one of them being the creator of one of my favorite installations, Rauschenberg, and had them shoot the canvas with a shot gun making the paint drip down in an unpredictable patter.  Another piece I really liked was, of course, an installation called "Venus of the Rags".  It was a statue of Venus facing a wall and in front of her was a pile of clothes cut into rags.  It was an intriguing work and it made quite the statement.  I'll let you interpret for yourself what it means.  As for me, I think it's a message about materialism.  

After our adventure at the Tate, we headed for Holland Park.  Scott said in the morning "where do you want to go today?" and he left it up to me to decide.  I just google searched "fun and original stuff to do in London" and Holland Park was listed as a must see.  I chose to go there and if the weather was good we decided to have a little picnic.  As it turned out, the weather was perfect and we grabbed a bite to eat at Pret A Manger which is quickly becoming our favorite lunch spot since you can get a meal for about a third of the price you pay almost anywhere else. (Side note: London is expensive!!!! !!)  We brought that to the park and just had a lovely time eating and talking about the modern art we just saw.  We walked around the gardens and looked at the lovely scenery.  There were Peacocks with the largest and most beautiful feathers I have ever seen.  There were bunnies and a coy fish pond.  There were blossoming trees, a pig pen, an orangery, and a youth hostel.  The best part of it all...it was FREE!  I love free things.  Scott and I watched children playing with water balloons and played on the amazing playground equipment ourselves.  Some of these structures would not fly in the US...too many law suit potentialities. (is that a word? ha.)  It was a blast.  I jumped on this rope swing and got a huge bruise on my thigh where the knot was!  It was intense.  We really had a good time at the park.  After some more walking around we decided to head back and get into Wimbledon in time to chat with Albert and Janice before we all headed to bed.  

Remember how I mentioned how excited Albert was about skype and a web cam? Well, he bought one...this morning!  When we came back from our day's adventures, we got Albert all set up and he seemed pretty excited about it all.  He made me feel like an expert computer tech.  Scott was wrapping up some stuff from winter semester at BYU so that left me working out all the kinks with the web cam.  I got it all figured out eventually and I think Albert is pretty jazzed about the whole thing.  We had a lovely conversation with Albert about his time in the Army and his courtship with Janice.  Of course there was tea and biscuits involved. :)  Have I mentioned how I love a warm cup of tea and a nice cookie?  Well, Scott and I have been eating their supply of biscuits so, we stopped at the grocery store to pick some up and bring them back to Janice and Albert...only to eat more of them ourselves. :)  oh dear....I'm starting to get used to all of this!

Monday 4/3/10

Monday was a very adventurous day.  If I could just map out for you all of the places I've walked in the last four days, you would probably be amazed at how much ground I've covered.  I couldn't do it without Scott though.  He is the navigator.  We had a later breakfast today.  Janice asked us when we wanted to eat and I just said whenever it was convenient for her it's convenient for us.  She said "we usually eat at a quarter to eight" and  what that meant was the time she thought we might like to eat.  Albert doesn’t even eat breakfast and she only usually has a bit of toast.  What this means is that Janice has been making us breakfast just to be kind.  Isn’t she wonderful?  The answer is yes. So, today we had an omlet and wheatbix...and tea of course.  Just scrumdidleyumptious!

We didn't really have any solid plans but Albert's friend Ray suggested that we check out Portobello Road.  We mentioned wanting to spend time at the famous markets of London and Protobello Road was his suggestion.  He said that this market is known for it's antiques and for being in Notting Hill.  Thank you Hollywood.  Scott and I had SO much fun walking down the road looking at all the lovely homes.  Once we reached the real hub of the market our first stop was this fabulous antique shop.  It was a manly man's sort of place complete with leather luggage stamped with initials, polo playing gear, top hats, cricket gear, hip flasks, martini shakers, and all sorts of manly gear.  Scott was just in heaven!  I told the girl at the counter that the man who owns the shop should try to advertise on The Art of Manliness (Scott's favorite blog) because the whole looking-to-the-past-for-inspiration-in-how-to-dress-and-ac-thing is really trendy.  There were some street vendors out selling foods and jewelry and hats.  I loved these little feathered hats with netting that comes over the eyes, very high fashion and vintage at the same time.  Scott and I indulged in a banana and nutella crepe made right there on the street it was decadent but we decided that we deserve it!

We also made a stop at a clock shop and Scott introduced me to the Atmos clock which operates with the power of atmospheric pressure.  Our last couple of stops were at vintage clothing shops.  I ADORE fluffy 1940's and 1950's style dresses.  Always have.  I was vintage before vintage was cool.  Dressing up in my grandma's clothes.  Her old gloves, purses, shoes, and jewelry.  Just as I was beginning to feel that Scott was bored of shopping with me, he would lead me into another one.  My favorite shop was called One of a Kind and you had to ring a door bell to get inside.  I think either they were trying to keep track of how many people were shopping at once or they were trying to determine if people are cool enough to enter.  As it turns out, Scott and I are cool enough.  We stepped inside and there was this group of about 5 black people who were hanging out and chatting.  I'm not sure who was working there and who was just hanging out but they were just such warm and friendly individuals!  I felt like much of the store was 60's and 70's Afro style stuff and I was all over it!  I picked out this blue 1950's cocktail dress...looked at the price tag....and put it down.  It was something like 500 pounds!!!  The girl at the counter just said to try it on for fun and I thought, what the hay, I might as well!  It fit me like it was made for me.  I thought it might be fun to run out and show the worker/ hang out group  how it looked and everyone was just raving.  Maybe to make a sale or maybe because they genuinely thought it looked nice.  Whatever the case...I felt like a total babe but, still decided not to blow all that money on a vintage dress.  Scott picked out this other dress.  Similar style only a day dress with a lower back.  By the way, sorry if this is boring for anyone reading this :)  I tried that one on and, of course it fit wonderfully!  I went out in that one and one of the worker/ hang out peeps said "wow, these fit you so well, you could model these clothes".  I said "sure, if I get them for a discount!"  No such luck.  It was fun nonetheless.  We chatted with the kids in the store for a bit and had lots of fun just kinda making friends.  They told us we were welcome to come back which I felt was more of an invitation than a business offer.  You know what I mean?  We are officially cool.

Scott and I headed back for lunch at a cafe called Charlie's that we saw earlier.  It was tucked away between a church and some flats for let.  There was blooming wisteria and vines all around this little crevice where the outdoor dining area was and we had the most delightful lunch.  Fresh baguette sandwiches and for desert...my favorite...a chocolate croissant!  The food was, as the British would say, beautiful.

We headed to Waterloo to begin a walk down the Thames to the Millenial Bridge and then St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was a chilly walk and we took refuge in another concert hall for a brief moment as Scott uses the loo.  I stood in the lobby listening to a local musician sing her original jazz and folk music.  We walked past a skate park and watched local kids and graphic artists roam this territory freely; the artists tagging the walls and the skaters practicing their stunts.  This city is just vibrant and full of energy.  We walked to St. Pauls and sat on the stairs watching the sun start to set and watching as the double decker busses passed.  

We walked to the south bank of the river again and found the Clink museum.  oooo, what a treasure that was!  We each paid 3.50 pounds to enter this thing.  Scott and I were kinda wondering what to do at this point.  We still had so many hours left in the day and were not quite ready to head back to Wimbledon.  Well, we happened upon this little jewel and decided to give it a try.  It was, after all, labeled as the most notorious renaissance prison.  After the tour, it was obvious that this was self proclaimed.  I about died laughing as we walked past these silly dressed up dummies that were just collecting dust, in the museum owners very sad attempt at creating a "prison scene".  There were tools of torture and confinement and signs explaining each one.  My favorite was for a woman who couldn't hold her tongue and was sent to prison for slander/ gossiping.  There was this metal contraption with a tongue hold on it that would be locked around the prisoner.  Underneath the sign explaining the contraption there were "interactive questions" for children.  One of the questions was "do you think this item might be used in your home if still used today?"  Underneath the display on whipping the question was "for what reasons might you be whipped?" Oh. My. Goodness.  I laughed so hard I almost peed.  And, imagine this, at the end of the tour, we ran into some fellow BYU students who are not studying abroad but just visiting.  Go figure!  

Scott and I boarded the underground and just as we were thinking about heading back, I decided we needed a little more adventure.  I said "why don't we just get on the train and pick a stop and get off and see where we are".  So, we did just that and it turned out to be....a flop.  My plan failed so miserably that I don't even remember the name of our first stop...it was that lame.  The good news is, we decided to give it another try.  We picked another stop that we had never been to before.  It sure sounded exciting...Picadilli Circus!  It turned out to be a blast.  I felt like I was in the Times Square of London.  There were huge screens on the side of a building with advertisements, lights, clubs, and musical theatres.  It was a relief to see that there is a part of London that doesn't close at 5! Ha.  I knew it had to be here somewhere.  Scott and I found China town, London.  It was about a half a block long but it seriously had these gates at either end making it clear that this was the real deal.  As we walked past a bunch of night clubs I saw neon lights in the distance spell "ESCAPE".  I said "ooo, Scott lets go check out es-ca-pay (Finding Nemo style).  Yea, we had a seriously good laugh.  I actually had to stop in my tracks and take a breather because I was laughing so hard. 

Finally we headed back to skype with my mum.  Albert and Janice got in on the conversation also.  Albert got pretty excited about the whole video chat thing.  So excited that he decided he would have to buy himself a webcam.  It really was a JAM packed day!  We were all over the place today and I loved just flying by the seat of my pants.  

Sunday in Hyde Park with Scott

Sunday was a lovely day.  It rained quite a bit but, I'm not sure why people complain about rain being "bad weather".  Rain is wonderful.  Sure it may soak through your shoes and get your clothes wet.  I say, if you don't like rain and the way it affects you...move somewhere sunny and dry....like the desert.  oh wait...it rains there too.  Maybe, if you are an individual that thinks of rain as "bad" then you should just live in outer space.  Is that too bold of me to say?  I'm feeling ever so slightly guilty for suggesting that.  Well, not too guilty because I'm leaving it for all to read.  For those of you who know me well, I don't really shy away from sharing my opinions in person why shy away on the internet? :)  Well, I digress.  So it rained Sunday.  We ate a breakfast of sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, hashbrowns, and wheatabix.  This wheatabix stuff is interesting.  It's like a block of dry wheat-ness that just soaks up milk like a sponge and you eat it with a spoon.  Jeff Holt would love this meal.  It's a solid that you are supposed to consume with a spoon. :) I digress again.  Maybe all this digression is the reason that I'm a day behind Scott in my blogging...drat. ok, let's try short and sweet: breakfast was delicious again.

Church began at 1:00 in Hyde Park and Scott and I slept in until 11:40....ahh!  We were in quite a rush.  I asked Albert if he could take us to the tube station and, being the gentleman and wonderful host that he is, he agreed to take us.  Oh, Albert.  Bless that man.  He drove us with skill and expertise through the streets of Wimbledon and got us to that station at around 12:00 on the nose.  When we stepped aboard the train, the only two seats available near each other were across from each other.  Scott and I sat down and I noticed the two gentlemen about our age talking to each other about the pubs also sitting across from each other.  Now I mentioned the rain earlier thus you can understand that the weather was cold and they had some heat coming out from below the seats and blowing on the back of our legs.  I was thinking "man, this is warm...maybe it's the body heat of the dude next to me".  I looked and saw that my legs were a  safe distance away from his, so as to not seem flirty or whatever.  I then looked across at Scott who pointed to the heat below his seat and commented that it felt warm or something.  I thought "oh, ah hah!  that is why I'm all warm".  So stupidly, I turn to the guy next to me to share my little discovery thinking he might find it amusing.  I said to him, if you can actually believe this, "I was feeling the heat and thinking man this guy is hot" then I realized that sounded flirty so I said "you know, like your body heat, I thought I was feeling it...and then I realized it was the radiator thing".  haha.  omg.  The realization hit me about 5 minutes later.  This guy probably thought I was hitting on him pretty hard.  Wow did we laugh about that later!

The Hyde Park chapel is just lovely and has an ideal location!  Right next door to the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.  It's a really lovely building.  Naturally, the choir director found us after the sacrament meeting and asked us to join the stake choir for the fireside that night.  Wha???  How did this happen? We are in the building for an hour and already people know we do choir?  Not that I'm complaining because I love to sing but, we are visiting a ward....in London....and we are asked to join in the special musical number.  It amuses me.  So, we dash off to walk around a bit and grab some Chinese food really fast don't judge :) and attend the fireside that night.  We had Brother and Sister Donaldson and the area 70, Elder Snow and his wife address us.  They had some nice things to say.  Brother Donaldson talked about making choices and disciplining ourselves to become true disciples.  I really enjoyed what he had to say.  He said that when he was dating his wife, her father said to him "I want you to know all my girls are chaste".  He responded with "oh that's ok, I'm only chasing one of them".  Ha.  I just loved that.  But, of course I loved the messages about discipleship more. ;)

After the fireside we visited with some of the other study abroad groups and met some locals.  We had the chance to get to know Kim a lot better and chat with her about music and getting together to jam.  She seemed thrilled to have people around that speak her language.  With all the theatre and a few of the music study abroad students that were there we were really finding some good common ground.

It was just a relaxing day, as the Sabbath should be.  It really did feel like a Sunday because we were at church ALL DAY.  I enjoyed doing church London style...taking the tube all gussied up in Sunday clothes.  I look forward to living close enough to just stroll to church or take walks in Hyde Park.  That should be truly lovely.

Friday 4/30/10

Friday morning we woke to a wonderful English breakfast of bacon, sunny side up eggs over American style pancakes, tomatoes, tea, orange juice, and toast.   Can you say gourmet?!  Janice was just a busy little body in the kitchen cooking up a storm.  She even put our plates in the oven to warm them.  I've never seen that before and I imagine that it's not that uncommon but, it impressed me nevertheless.  I've been looking at the auditions for Disneyland and found one in London during the time I'm here.  I hit that right up!  Talk about adventure!  We arrived at Pineapple studios just after 10:00 (the supposed start time for the audition) only to find a HUGE line along the side of the building extending out into the street.  I got aggressive.  I told Scott to wait in line while I investigated.  I walked in the building and asked the girl at the counter about the Disney audition.  She said "I wouldn't know anything about that" and I thought, please!  Have you seen the amount of people coming through this place? You have to at least heard that it's going on.  Well, I just marched myself upstairs to poke around a bit.  I found some official looking people.  I said, "I need a number" and bam, they handed me a paper to fill out and a number...445.  I thought 445? omg, how many girls am I competing with here?  haha.  Turns out...600!!! I was told that if I made some of the cuts, I would need to provide a headshot and resume so I sent Scott out to get all that printed.  He is such a gem.  He just let me do my thing and was sooo supportive of this little dream I have to be a Disney Princess. I danced and acted my little heart out for 3 hours, made two cuts, and some friends.  No lifelong bonds or anything just connections with pleasant people.  

     We left the Pineapple dance studio and walked all around Covent Garden area.  We started at this Masonic Lodge and took a little tour.  While in one of the temples, the tour guide asked how many people we thought the room could seat.  Most people on the tour were guessing 600 or 800...small stuff.  Scott went for it and guessed 2,000.  I thought...hmm let's compare this room to a performance hall such as the De Jong at BYU which sits almost 2,000 and I thought this temple was comparable so I guessed 1500.  It turns out that it seats somewhere around 1700! haha we are so smart!  I asked, "do I get a prize" and the guide said "A trip aboard the Queen Mary for two!!" and I thought, great, pay up buddy!  

   Then we set out for the British Museum.  That place is so overwhelming!  There is just so much to take in you could probably spend two weeks going there every day and not even get to see everything.  It doesn't help that much of the museum shuts down at 5 anyway.  haha.  I really liked the enlightenment exhibit.  It was fun to see how mans curiosity effected the way we collect and share information.  This Sloan guy collected so much stuff from pottery to stuffed birds to sea shells to slippers.  This man had it all.  He was examining cultures and religion and the natural world.  Thank you Enlightenment.  My favorite tid bit of information: Sloan was the first to take the cocoa bean with milk and he sold his recipe to the Cadbury brothers...yea that's right...the makers of the most delicious chocolate in the world!!! While I was waiting for Scott to finish using the toilet I nearly fell asleep and I knew it was about time to go home.  There were a few more stops to make.  

Scott really wanted to hit Soho. He didn't know why...or at least he claimed to not know why.  

The only thing we saw there was this pretty little park and a few hippies. I was mostly put off by a 

sign at the entrance that said "no dogs, no bikes, no loud music, etc" it might as well have said "no 

fun!" We sat there for a minute and decided to head back to Wimbledon to end the night with Jan 

and Albert over some tea and cookies. Hello, best thing ever! My name is Michelle and I love 

English tea (herbal of course). So we did just that...headed back, visited, and went to bed!

  Scott and I spent 30 hours traveling from San Fran to London starting on Wednesday the 28th and ending on Thursday the 29th.  As a cool side note, the airport architecture made me feel like we were traveling as James Bond and his Bond girl.  There was even an iris recognition system!!! Anyway, we arrived in Heathrow at 7:30 AM, Thursday morning and made our way to South Kensington where we will live for 6 weeks for our study abroad.  We hoped that we could maybe meet with the building keepers and leave our baggage with them so we could kill some time and explore a bit.  So, we walked from the South Kensington tube station to Hyde Park Gate...quite the treck with all our baggage...only to discover that they were cleaning out the flats from the previous occupants and there weren't any official looking land lords or study abroad officials around.  We hadn't even made contact with Janice, a family friend who lives in Wimbledon and the place we are actually staying for the next week.  At that point neither of us wanted to make any phone calls or pay for expensive internet cafes.  We poked around for a bit at the flats and found a maintenance man who gave us the code for the internet there.  We connected to the internet and managed to pull up a map of where Jan lives.  We pulled that map up just in time for the internet to go out again.  It was about 10:30 AM or so and we decided to head to the underground and for Wimbledon since we told Jan we would be there around noon. Scott and I had some fun figuring out the tube.  During the culture class that we took at BYU in preparation for our study a broad we were given very exact directions from Heathrow to South Kensington but it was surprising difficult to find street names. They don't post them at every intersection and they don't label the windows of businesses here.  The street name usually appears in one place.  The upper edge of buildings at intersections. We got back to the tube and headed for the Wimbledon train. 

      We didn't even know which Wimbledon station to get off at but we just gave it a try and happened to pick the right one.  haha.  We luckily decided to wait until the end of the line and walked for about 25 minutes to get to Jan and Albert's home. We relied on the google map for the first ten minutes of our journey and as we passed a library, Scott had the genius idea to head inside and ask around for directions. whooo...that was another treck! It helps that streets are more well labeled here in Wimbledon! We made it, exhausted, and Jan welcomed us in warmly, fed us pizza, and showed us to our rooms.  We sat down for tea (couldn't see that coming!) and met her daughter-in-law Tu (from Thailand).

       Scott and I were fighting jet lag pretty badly so we decided to go for a walk around town and maybe get our bearings for the city we'd be living in for the first week of this journey. There is lots of shopping, narrow roads, and busy bodies everywhere. I found the most amazing vintage store.  Scott humored me and we took a look inside.  I wanted every clothing item in that store. :) Fluffy and frilly dresses all done up with bows and pearls.  I am an old soul.  What can I say.  I had visions of Scott and I walking around the pond in Wimbledon...all dressed up like we came straight out of a 1950's television show (In England they call the TV the "telly", kinda fun). We walked around some more looking for the tennis museum and found a park instead.          

Wimbledon is so green and quaint.  Lovely brick houses sandwiched side by side with itty bitty front gardens. When we were sitting for tea with Janice she went on and on about how big American houses are, making mention of Roy's home (Roy is her brother, the family friend who connected us with her).  I said Roy just has the benefit of a property to expand to and the know how of a builder man.  Well, anyhow, we made our way to the tennis courts, you know the world famous ones where all the big shots compete...and it was CLOSED...at 5:20 PM...what closes that early back home? banks...thats it.  Well, I was dead tired at that point.  We just sat at the outside wall and rested.  The reality hit us then that we were actually in England!  We headed back and went pretty much straight to bed.  It was 9:30 PM.  yea, I know, laugh it up.

5/1/10

Saturday we woke for an even bigger English breakfast complete with baked beans, cereal, eggs, pancakes, bacon, toast, tea, and OJ. It was delicious and super duper filling. It is just so nice to sit down to breakfast in this beautiful and light little kitchen that Albert built for his wife and look out into the backyard at the trees and flowers and watch the commuter train go buy. The sky was just beaut-

iful this morning. Blue with just little puffs of clouds painted across. Just lovely. Scott and I stuffed ourselves and took our time getting ready. Albert and his buddy Ray suggested that we head to

Waterloo today and take a boat down the Thames. We headed out to that part of London. We knew

there would be much to see in that area. All the really iconic "London" stuff like the eye and Big Ben,

the houses of Parliament, and Trafalgar Square. I was not expecting to do SO much in one day but

at the same time, it felt very easy and relaxing to just go and do it all!

We got off the tube at Waterloo and right outside the exit we found the Royal Festival Hall. For

me I thought, sweet, a nice free toilet. For Scott he thought sweet, a nice free place for me to wait for

Michelle to use the toilet and BONUS its a performance hall. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to

see this fancy royal music hall but I really needed to use the loo. Anywho, we get inside and realize

there is a choir festival going on. They were holding auditions for small ensembles to sing and give

concerts in the elevators, there is a rehearsal tomorrow for anyone who wants to join this insta-choir

and sing some Mahler, there was a concert for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, etc.

Scott bought tickets for 9 pounds for that evening!

After crossing the Hungerford bridge we hit up Trafalgar Square. As a side note, there was this black guy 

playing the bongo drums on the bridge and not very well. He had dreads and this like flowing African

looking shirt on. It was like he said to himself, maybe if I look more legit and still play crappy, people will 

give me more money. Well Mr. Jimbe/ Bongo man, I'm not impressed. Get some really sweet drum skills, 

impress me, and then I'll give you money. Anyway, back to the bridge... It was a beautiful afternoon.

I wished I had my swimsuit to jump in the fountains though I don't think the Met (London's Police force)

would have appreciated that very much. :) I also enjoyed the gold woman, the tin man, and the rusted 

copper man. Growing up near SF I think I've probably seen every kind of street performer. The only unique 

"performer" I've seen is the Naked Cowboy in New York and he is hardly a performer. This rusted copper man

cool though. He took the whole metal statue thing to a new level by using paint the color of the Statue of Liberty

in conjunction with copper paint. I found his interpretation artistic even. Now, if I could see him do something

really impressive, I could see myself paying him money. Just dressing cool is not enough. I mean, shoot

I dress cool every day and nobody pays to take pictures with me...except in China but that's just because I 

have red hair. So, I walk up to the rusted copper man and ask him if he knows how to tap dance. If he busted

out a time step I would give him money for sure. He asked, "what is tap dancing?" So I showed him a move

and he said "no". I said, "well, work on that and when you can dance for me, I'll give you some money". :) How's 

for demanding satisfaction! ha. Anywho...Scott and I sat on the fountains and took in the view.

People watching is such fun. I looked straight ahead and saw the Canadian Embassy, to my left was

the National Gallery, to my right was Trafalgar Square and all it's glory. Sun shone down on us and I

wished I had a blanket for a picnic. Could you imagine. Two tourists sitting down in the middle of this

busy square for a picnic. I'd like a picture of that. Maybe sometime in the next 6 weeks we'll do it.

As you can imagine, our next stop was the National Gallery. There we saw some amazing paintings.

I watched as mothers pointed to works of Van Gogh, Monet, Seurat, Degas, Turner, Rubens, and Renoir

just to name a few. They were explaining the importance of these artists to their 7 and 8 year old children.

Some seemed disinterested and others seemed enthralled. I loved looking at this little girl admiring the

work of Renoir, At the Theatre. She seemed connected to the piece. So connected that she was

explaining the piece to her parents. It was adorable. I was most excited to see the Degas paintings. I

love how soft his paintings are and I also love that he loved dancers :) . I could write a whole separate

blog about viewing these paintings!

Our next venture was down Whitehall/ Parliament Street. Scott was really excited about the old war

office. I saw a bunch of people gathered in this courtyard across the street and naturally I wanted to see

what all the fuss was about. Scott and I made our way over. Turns out this was the Horse Guard's Parade

and some royal horse museum. Essentially, a really cool courtyard just down the pond from Buckingham

Palace. Again, with my girlish fantasies, I imagined wearing a huge gown and crown and all that sort of

thing riding side saddle in glass slippers. I do wish I were a princess sometimes. :) At least Scott still

treats me like I am.

We headed down the road to Westminster Abbey. By this time it was about 5:00 on the nose and the

abbey was closing for evensong and worship of God. I said to the guard, who was shewing away all the

tourists, "isn't it evensong? We want to attend." and tahdah, he let us in. Others followed suit. We listened

and enjoyed the 45 minute service. I was impressed by the building and the all male choir. Boys and men

singing all the traditional mass music. It was lovely and even a spiritual experience. I just love the Magnificat

and Nunc Dimitis. Especially after singing two versions of these texts in Concert Choir this year. My favorite

line is "world without end, amen". Hearing that line ring through the abbey was so moving.

At about this time we headed out for our concert at the Royal Festival Hall. It was POURING rain.  

P. o. u. r. i. n. g. By the time we got to the hall, my shoes and socks were soaked. I had a moment of classlessness

as I took off my shoes and socks right there in the hall and set them out to dry. Scott is not ashamed to be with

me but, I think I embarassed him this time. Ha. He hid my things under the table. We sat down for about an

hour to warm up with hot coco and cakes. Beet root cake was our favorite. Then it was time for the concert!

We had the cheap seats but the concert hall was well designed (unlike the toilets with the door to the changing room

ramming into the door to the actual toilets) and we had a lovely view! Schweet. I'm glad we didn't spring for the

more expensive seats. The orchestra played brilliantly and with so much heart. We heard "Foust Overature" by

Vagner, Brahms "Alto Rhapsody", and "Foust Symphony" by List. Can you believe our day? Great music and

art...INCREDIBLE! I'm so very blessed to have these enriching experiences. They deepen my understanding

of history and culture and allow me to connect experience with knowledge.  Then I have a new context for interpreting current in future experience.  Ok, let me remove the jargon...I've studied all this cool culturally enriching stuff, now I'm seeing it and experiencing it, I can see even more and learn even more, and take use that when I learn other cool stuff.  Put simply, I love this stuff.  

Parallels

There are many similarities between the exodus of Latter Day Saints across the plains to the west and the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt.  First, the leaders of each exibition were similar in faith and experience.  Moses learned his leadership skills through the time he spent in the military.  Similarly, Brigham Young learned under the stewardship of the prophet Joseph Smith and worked along side him during the difficult move from Missouri to Nauvoo.  There is no question that each of these leaders experienced trials and the Lord knew these trials would come.  We read in Exodus and in D&C 136 as the Lord promises that if his appointed leaders and his chosen people would endure these trials, they would be blessed for each of these groups were God's "chosen people".  Both leaders had the Lord's blessing and guidance upon beginning these journeys and believed from the beginning that it was the will of the Lord that they do so.

In D&C 136 we also read that the saints were promised they need not fear their enemies; that the Lord would "do (his) pleasure with them".  This was also the case with the Israelites who crossed through the parted Red Sea that came crashing down over the Egyptians, their enemies, who were chasing after them. Each of these groups witnessed miracles along the way.  The Lord promises, "marvel not at these things, for ye are not yet pure; ye can not yet bear my glory; but ye shall behold it if ye ae faithful in keeping all my words".  He would show them his glory after the trial of their faith which, since they were tried from the beginning, I think he showed them bits of His glory along the way, helping them keep hope and faith.  The Mississippi River even froze over for them to cross.  This parallel to the children of Israel is a pretty clear one to me!

At the end of their journeys, it is true to say that both groups suffered immeasurably.  Yet, for those who made it to the promised land, they could see the hand of the Lord in it.  The Lord does keep his promises.  In Exodus 13, Moses tells his people "remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by the strength of the hand of the Lord brought you out from this place".  The saints knew this was also true for them and they established a headquarters in Salt Lake.  

It's incredible to study and compare these two groups of the Lord's faithful.  Both suffered immeasurably but in the end were blessed immeasurably.  We read account after account of these miracles in the lives of the saints who crossed west.  The Lord keeps his promises.